Persona: World And Judgement
Persona: World And Judgement is a fanfiction based on the stories of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES and Persona 4: Golden, by the author The-Final-Fidelity. It was first published on December 4th, 2011 and is still a work in progress (the last update was on January 23rd, 2016). The story acts as the third instalment of the fanfiction trilogy that the author has produced that focuses on the crossover between the third and fourth instalments of the original frachise; the first being Persona: His Sapphire Eyes and the second being Persona: Spirits In Pixels. Plot WARNING: This article contains spoilers! The story is set in August-time, 2012, taking place a day after Persona: Spirits In Pixels. After rescuing Mitsuru Kirijo from the TV World and making contact with her, the Investigation Team set their course for Iwatodai, where they hope to aid S.E.E.S in their mission to find the missing body of Minato Arisato. However, along the way, the newly-formed group are faced with two new enemies; boys whose identities are shrouded in mystery and whose abilities come from the TV World. Alongside this, the team are faced with daily broadcasts from the Midnight Channel, revealing silhouettes that resemble people from their past; each of them crafted from their own desires. Throughout the story, the team have to juggle their investigation while finding out why the Midnight Channel returned, as well as what the two culprits are up to. To make matters worse though, the Dark Hour and Tartarus mysteriously returns as well. Lead/Major Characters/Protagonists See also: List of Persona 3 characters; List of Persona 4 characters In Persona: World And Judgement, the story consists of a crossover between the third and fourth instalments of the original series, thus the lead characters and some of the minor characters are present from both games and collaborate with each other. Supporting/Minor Characters See also: List of Persona 3 characters; List of Persona 4 characters Again, the minor and supporting characters in the story come from both original games and crossover with one another. Lead Antagonists There are two lead antagonists who are Original Characters (OC) and have supposedly been the ones responsible for the theft of Minato Arisato's body and his possessions. Though the question on their identities are a mystery. Chapters 1-10 Chapter One - Departure The Investigation Team begin to make their way to Iwatodai, using the bus to travel to the Inaba Train Station where they would follow directions for the Tatsumi Hall which Mitsuru Kirijo asked the group to go to since that was where S.E.E.S resided. Along the way, Yu worries about the safety of his friends since he thinks that the investigation will be much more than just finding Minato's body. Noticing this, Rise comforts him and reassures him that no will get hurt. Meanwhile, Yosuke yells at Chie for drooling on his shoulder, still unaware of what happened during the time they were all fighting Mitsuru's Shadow in the TV world; this, in turn, woke everyone else up to his shouting. After Yosuke started the argument, he expected Chie to begin arguing with him; but instead, she moved away to a seat next to Yukiko, still implying that she still had feelings for him and that she didn't want to fight with him anymore. Somewhat baffled by this, Yosuke turns to Yu, concerned about Nanako since they were all going away to Iwatodai and Ryotaro is usually late home every day. Yu responds by saying that his uncle was going to come home to Nanako more frequently so that nothing bad would happen to her. Rise then sympathises with Chie and makes her feelings clear to Yu who told her that Chie is only feeling this way due to her kissing Yosuke so that she could get him out of Mitsuru's Shadow's 'Marin Karin' spell and, thus creating romantic feelings towards him. Afterwards, Yu goes to sleep and immediately wakes up to the Velvet Room where he sees Igor and Margaret as usual. They tell Yu that he has completed his first 'turning point' in his destiny but has yet to complete the next one; Igor tells him that in order to be prepared for 'The Coming', he has to strengthen a bond with a person he already knows. The problem was that this bond had yet to begin, so Yu needed to find this person and create that bond with them. Knowing what his next goal is, Yu leaves the Velvet Room and returns to the real world. When he wakes up, he knew that they were nearly to the train station. He continued to think about what Igor and Margaret had said to him for the rest of the way. Chapter Two - Arrival S.E.E.S are now waiting for the Investigation Team's arrival; Junpei Iori and Ken Amada were on look-out duty so that they can spot any mode of transport parking outside the Tatsumi Hall and warn everyone so that they can be fully prepared for when they enter the building. Junpei expresses to Mitsuru how much he can't keep away since it was 10pm at night and he was looking out the window for most of the day; Ken reassures Mitsuru saying that he has been awake for the whole time, confirming that nothing has arrived yet. They both then pick up on Mitsuru's sudden disappearance from the day before, somewhat confused by how Mitsuru came into contact with the Investigation Team who lived in the countryside of Inaba. Mitsuru replies to say that they will explain it once everyone was together. Shortly after, Fuuka Yamagishi and Aigis come down the stairs from Yukari Takeba's room to let Mitsuru know that she wasn't going to join the meeting with the Investigation Team that evening due to tiredness. But Mitsuru learnt from Aigis' concern that Yukari was still thinking about Minato, knowing that it was two years ago since he passed away and that the recent events must've made her depressed. After some reassurance from Koromaru though, the Investigation Team arrived at the dorm and Mitsuru welcomed them in, beginning their journey with each other now that the two groups had now come together. Chapter Three - Introductions The newly formed group introduce themselves to each other, starting with the members of S.E.E.S. Everyone was there apart from Akihiko Sanada , who was attending a police induction at a Police Department in Ayanagi City, and Yukari due to personal reasons. But shortly after Mitsuru explained this, Yukari eventually came down to meet the Investigation Team, still not in the brightest of spirits. Afterwards, the Investigation Team did their own introductions before coming to the subject of their mission. When Fuuka mentions that Yu would be the leader of the investigation, he and even Yukari found it unnecessary for having a leader, though Yukari was slightly more against it. But then Mitsuru explains that the body of Minato couldn't have just been stolen, but that it might've had some connections to the Midnight Channel and the TV world, since both events coincided with each other. It is then revealed that Junpei had also watched the Midnight Channel; this was during the time the Investigation Team was taking shape and trying to find out the culprit behind the string of murders in Inaba, and Junpei had seen everyone's Shadow apart from Yu's since he didn't have one to begin with. But Junpei did not know this and instead thought that they were the real people on the TV. But when Yu briefly explained it, it was then made clear to S.E.E.S that there was another kind of Shadow separate to the ones they used to know; that Shadows can take the form of their hosts while they are made up entirely out of their own suppressed emotions. Along with this Mitsuru explains in understanding that the TV world is a place where a person's desires can be built and structured when their human subconscious enters the TV. They then wondered about what Yu's appearance on the Midnight Channel was like, but when Yu explained that he didn't have his own Shadow, Mitsuru knew that he had nothing to hide, even urging him to give them other information about himself that she already knows about. When it was made clear that he owned the Wild Card ability, everyone reacted to it positively. All except for Yukari. Concerned that Yu was a replacement for Minato, Yukari asked for him to prove that he had the Wild Card, but after he made a demonstration, she ran back upstairs with the assumption, ignoring everyone as she went. The chapter ends with Yu wondering if Yukari will ever understand. Chapter Four - Someone To Talk To The next morning, Yu and Yukari were the first early ones up and things were very awkward between them. But before too long, Yukari apologises for her outburst the day before, to which Yu replied with an understanding of what she was going through. To comfort her, Yu told Yukari of his experience when Nanako was critcally ill and how she came back to life after a near-death experience. With that being said, Yu conveys to her that he wasn't a replacement for Minato, but a person willing to help; he says that he and the rest of his group, as well as S.E.E.S will do everything in their power to find Minato and hopefully find the ones responsible for it, to which Yukari said to him that he was so much like Minato in terms of his kindness and willingness to help others when in crisis, as well as having the exact same power as he did. Ultimately though, this made Yukari come to like Yu, saying how she was finally glad that he was the leader of the team. After their friendly conversation, Yu needed to find a suitable place for his katana other than in between the coat lining in his jacket, which Yukari had a solution to. She led him to the cupboard that sat just under the stairs where S.E.E.S had been keeping their equipment for sentimental reasons; as Yu placed his katana inside, he noticed that the place where Minato's stuff was usually kept was completely empty. When he asked Yukari, she mentioned to him that, along with his body, his inventory was also taken as well. Some of the things that were stolen consisted of Minato's music player, cell phone, Evoker, and even the cell phone strap which Yukari had given him at the time when she proclaimed her love for him. At this moment, Yu could remember a cell phone strap which a stranger in a hood gave to him back at the Junes Department Store in Inaba. But after a while of giving it thought, Yu shrugged it off before getting ready to go out to the city. Chapter Five - Turning Tables Later that day, everyone went to the Paulownia Mall, where they all bought various souvenirs as well as supplies in case of anything that might happen along their mission. Throughout the day, Yu tags along with his teammates, going from store to store to make conversation with them. When he went to Chagall Cafe, he met up with Fuuka, Aigis, Yukari and Ken, sitting down with them along with Junpei. Even though he was reluctant to bring up Yukari's cell phone strap beforehad, Yu eventually told her about it and returned it to her. But upon being asked where he found it, Yu had to lie, saying that he found it under one of the benches near the fountain; he had to do this so that he wouldn't give away the hooded boy's motives which he repected. To Yukari, the cell phone strap was a sign that someone or something had definitely stolen Minato's body and his possessions since Minato was the only one who could've had the cell phone strap last, and it couldn't have just appeared under the bench by chance. After finishing their coffee, they all left the cafe and joined up with the rest of the group. As they did, they overhead Yosuke teasing Chie since she had bought a 'Mood Bracelet' from the 'Be Blue V' shop which told her that she was in love. Still unaware of the truth behind Chie's feelings, Yosuke tries to figure out who the mystery crush is, naming boys such as Kou Ichijo as likely candidates. Again though, like with the bus journey, Chie just walked away from him, trying to ignore any conflict with Yosuke, which only made him more regretting about his previous teasings. Everyone knew that they weren't about to leave the mall yet due to Mitsuru doing business with Detective Kurosawa, so they parted again to do some last minute shopping around the place. Yu, however, saw the hooded boy walking into the dead-end passage next to the police station and immediately tried to catch up with him. When he did, Yu explained the situation to the boy and worried about what might happen to him since he may have made him a potential suspect to the group now. But according to the hooded boy, that didn't matter, because he only needed Yu to give back the cell phone strap; this only made Yu slightly confused about what the boy was trying to achieve, since the returning of the cell phone strap only made Yukari upset and that irked him somewhat. The boy's true intentions is then revealed. The boy quickly pulled out a weapon which was actually Minato's own blade and used it against Yu, scarring his cheek so that he could make a quick getaway. Due to the agonising pain Yu was experiencing at the time, the boy was successful in doing so and managed to escape. After this, Yu went back to the group who were shocked to suddenly see him with a cut on his face, and after Rise asked him about how he got the scar, Yu told everyone about the hooded boy, who he now named him as the culprit behind the theft of Minato's body as well as his possessions. Chapter Six - Calling Adachi S.E.E.S and the Investigation Team return to the dorm after the events at Paulownia Mall and tended to Yu's wound. Whilst he was being treated, the news mentioned that forensic scientists working in the Iwatodai region had only recently found out the connections and similarities between Minato Arisato's, Takeharu Kirijo's and Shinjiro Aragaki's deaths. The Investigation Team knew by now that Shinjiro's death was a result of murder during the Dark Hour, and were told by Mitsuru that he and Akihiko Sanada were close friends since childhood, to which they sympathised with S.E.E.S about. Later, Yu shared with the group his thoughts on who brought back the Midnight Channel. He didn't believe that Izanami was the one who brought it back because of that fact that she only created the Midnight Channel to fit humanity's wants and desires, which was actually something Tohru Adachi orchestrated in order to create the TV world. Since Yu had a suspicion that Adachi was still at large and that he still carries Ameno-Sagiri, which led him to believe that Adachi is to blame since he was harbouring the god of fog. Even though the Investigation Team knew that Adachi is now in prison, they believed that he might be operating from jail. Yu called Ryotaro Dojima, a top Inaba police detective and his uncle, and asked for him to speak to Adachi. After persuading him, Dojima passed Yu to Adachi. It was then that Adachi revealed that he wasn't the one responsible for broadcasting the Midnight Channel again since he didn't have a TV in jail to work with, nor did he make any attempt to escape. Yu, however, still believed that he had a part to play in the return of the Midnight Channel and asked Adachi of Ameno-Sagiri's whereabouts since he was the only known person to harbour it. But Adachi revealed that Ameno-Sagiri never sided with him but only worked with him because of the fact that they shared the same desires of wanting the real world to become a Shadow-ridden environment; he went further to say that Ameno-Sagiri can find another host apart from himself, saying that the next person to harbour it will have needed to have the same thoughts and same desires as he had in order for Ameno-Sagiri to coporate with them. Yu hung up and told the group that Adachi wasn't the one to blame. Chapter Seven - Aragaki Screening It is nighttime, and everyone, after hearing the news of Adachi's lack of involvement in the return of the Midnight Channel, returned to their dorm rooms. Yu cannot sleep from all he's had to think about. He answers a call from Yukari who also was unable to rest, and the phone conversation leads on to how her lack of sleep was caused by a dream she had. She confides in him that the dream happened two years ago, when S.E.E.S were within their first days of occupying the Tatsumi Hall, and that the dream lasted a week in real-life. She says that her dream was solely focused around Minato and how their bond became closer with each 'day' until they fell in love with each other, as if reliving a different sequence that would end with her and Minato as a couple. The dream ended with Minato reminding her of what was really happening; that she was dreaming of this and that he was still dead, sacrificing his soul to keep the Great Seal closed. Yu is astonished by how Yukari was able to recall the dream very vividly even after two years. It is then revealed that Yukari sometimes becomes and insomniac because of it and that she had begun to experience the dream again and again very recently, for a few days, which implies that she started to relive this dream ever since the news of Minato's disapperance was made known. She tells him of the promise she made to Minato before his death; that she would make an effort to change the world so that more and more people would stop wishing for 'The Fall'. However, she explicity mentions that she is unable to keep this promise since Minato wasn't with her to support her. This makes her upset, which Yu tries to prevent by consoling her. Yukari, though she doesn't mention it, implies that Yu and Minato had so many similarities; one of them being that he would help those who are suffering, especially when he proved her of that in that moment. But as the time struck midnight, the Midnight Channel airs again. This time, the TV screen showed someone who was unfamiliar to the Investigation Team, as the silhouette. A text from Mitsuru prompts everyone to make their way to the lounge of the Tatsumi Hall and hold a group meeting to discuss what to do about this sudden broadcast. Rise describes the figure as a young man with a beanie and a jacket, but because of lack of clarity from the Midnight Channel, she couldn't make out the full details, as was the same with everyone else. Naoto then speaks up to explain a theory; she mentions that the reason they were seeing these particular people on the Midnight Channel was because someone had seen them through the media, such as the news, and thus implying that the aforementioned person is then led into the TV world by an emotional reaction to the person they see on the Midnight Channel. After some thought, Yu tells the rest of the group that the person on the Midnight Channel was Shinjiro Aragaki. Mitsuru clarifies that the person seen on the Midnight Channel is a result of another person holding desires to see this said person, and knowing that no one in the group had entered the TV, it had to be someone else who knew Shinjiro who wasn't present in the group at the moment. Yukiko clarifies this and tells the group that anyone can watch the Midnight Channel, so anyone could be the one causing it to broadcast. Fuuka, however, arrived at the answer. Akihiko Sanada was the next to enter the TV that night. Mitsuru frantically calls Akihiko's mobile, but immediately finds out that there is no signal coming from Akihiko's end of the line. She makes it clear that that never happens to them and that it must've meant something. Yu then tells her that mobile phone signal is not available whatsoever in the TV world and that Akihiko's being in the TV would make sense of why Mitsuru's attempt at calling him suddenly cut out. Without hesitation, Mitsuru and Yu agree that they would all get prepared to enter the TV and that the operation to save Akihiko would happen that night. Chapter Eight - The Orphanage After the Investigation Team and S.E.E.S finished preparations for their first expedition as one group into the TV world, Teddie remembers to give the members of S.E.E.S their own 'Teddie Glasses'; the same kind the Investigation Team use to see through the fog inside the TV - Kanji becomes excited when he notices that Koromaru's are of the same design as his own pair. Realising that S.E.E.S too had offerings, Mitsuru presented to the members of the Investigation Team with their own Evokers, getting shocked reactions from them when they first thought that S.E.E.S were offering them guns. Aigis explains the Evokers' function to them to ease their nerves. Mitsuru explains further that they won't have any problems with summoning Personas since they had already had practice with calling them out before and that only on first use would cause unconsciousness. Once they were ready, Yu warns S.E.E.S that the fall into the TV was a long one, but leads them into the TV world nonetheless. After he came out through the long corridor, Yosuke followed through with Chie falling onto him. Before Yosuke could shout at her, Chie immediately apologises and helps Yosuke up; he becomes weirded out by the situation, still unaware of the time when he was charmed by Mitsuru's Shadow. Afterwards, Yu and Yosuke helped everyone else out through the TV that led back to the real world one by one. Upon Yu's request, Rise began to summon Kanzeon to scout the TV world for Akihiko's inevitable presence and decided to use her Evoker to do so. However, she struggled to do so since putting the Evoker to her head made the summoning process seem more suicidal. With the help of Yukari though, Rise called upon her Persona after pulling the Evoker's trigger, making her the first Investigation Team member to use it. After scanning throughout the landscape, Rise was able to find someone, but found it very difficult the pinpoint exactly where they were. Fuuka summoned Juno to help Rise with the search, and after combining powers, they were able to find the location. Everyone made their way to the destination and immediately came across a structure that had 'Minashigo-In', which is the Japanese romaji for 'Orphanage'. It was then that Mitsuru realised that this was the same orphanage that Akihiko, his sister Miki Sanada, and Shinjiro Aragaki (who was seen previously as a silhouette on the Midnight Channel) went to when they were children. They all enter the dungeon, and after scouting the area, they found Akihiko along with his Shadow, as they expected. The Shadow taunted Akihiko with how weak he was towards moving on from the tragedy with Shinjiro and Miki's demise and how much his strength was leaving him because of it. Yosuke warned Akihiko to not say what is usually said in response to the Shadow's taunting, but eventually, Akihiko gave in and denied everything the Shadow was saying, leading to an inevitable battle. Chapter Nine - Sanada Showdown The Shadow swallows Akihiko as it transforms into its berserked state, which Mitsuru immediately recognises as a Shadow-like version of Caesar, but with his own face. The Investigation Team and S.E.E.S go into battle, which marked the first ever fight where the two groups worked together. They all fought hard, using techniques such as cut-ins and combining Personas with one another to take down the Shadow. The battle was mostly in the Persona-users' favour, but Aigis became the most fragile one in the united group when her summoning of Orpheus went awry, resulting in her psyche becoming instantly strained immediately after just entering battle. However, after a arduous fight, the Persona-users managed to defeat Akihiko's Shadow. Shortly after, Akihiko's acceptance towards his Shadow saw him to find his real reasons for looking into the past rather than looking to the future; that he focused on it out of depression for who he had lost but seeing it also as an incentive to push himself forward. After the Shadow fades away back into his subconscious, Akihiko suddenly sees the spirits of Shinjiro Aragaki and his deceased little sister, Miki Sanada, who says to him that she and their parents are always watching him from heaven. Teary-eyed and re-fixing his resolve, Akihiko says one final goodbye to the spirits before they faded away. He introduces himself to the Investigation Team and takes particular interest in Yu since he weilded the Wild Card ability, saying that he hadn't seen that kind of power in a long time. After the introductions, he asks Mitsuru if she still had his Evoker, which made her think that he was going to abandon his trainee police duties to stay with them at the Tatsumi Hall; he says that he would just put himself on sick leave for a couple of weeks to join the investigation. Chapter Ten - Wild Card Malfunction Everyone makes their way out of the TV world, and after getting back to the Tatsumi Hall they all went straight to bed. As Yu went to sleep, he was met with Elizabeth, Margaret and Igor who waited for him in the Velvet Room, and he was somewhat surprised to see Aigis in the room as well. Elizabeth noticed the strain in Aigis' psyche almost immediately and asks her if everything was alright. Aigis and Yu explained briefly of how Aigis' summoning of Orpheus went completely wrong, which intrigued Igor greatly. After a short diagnosis of Aigis' Wild Card, Igor admitted that he wasn't sure of what was causing the 'malfunction', as he described it, but was able to tell that she was no longer able to summon Personae from that of the Fool Arcana. He agreed to monitor her Wild Card so that he could provide her with a better explanation in the future. Yu asks Aigis if summoning Orpheus was like this before, to which she said that it hadn't. She adds that the Wild Card wasn't actually hers to begin with and that it belonged to Minato Arisato before she inherited it upon his death. Yu could only think that Minato had to fit in with the Wild Card's malfunction somehow, but before he could elaborate on the thought any further, Margaret changed to the topic; she asked of him about anything that had happened during the time since they last met in the Velvet Room. Yu replied with the description of the hooded boy that only recently turned on him at the Paulownia Mall and asked if any of the Velvet Room residents knew anything about him. Not much was said other than the boy would be both a distraction as well as a necessary part of Yu's destiny but that he does pose a threat regardless. Before leaving the Velvet Room, Elizabeth reminds Yu of the promise he made to her. The meeting between the five lasts until the next morning. Chapters 11-20 Trivia *Persona: World And Judgement is the more popular fanfiction of the trilogy The-Final-Fidelity has produced. Persona: Spirits In Pixels comes second and Persona: His Sapphire Eyes, third. It is also the longest story the author has created in the trilogy. *The story takes place a few months after the events of Persona 4: Golden, which means that Persona 4: Arena and Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax's events have been discounted; this was due to the author writing the first chapters of Persona: World And Judgement before the game's announcement revealed anything about its content, including the character, Labrys, and Akihiko's living habits (he becomes a trainee police detective for the Ayanagi Police Department in the story - a reference to Persona -trinity soul-). Because of the author's already-decided plan, the story follows events that leaves out the plot of the two fighter games. **Although Labrys isn't included in the story, the author has made plans of bringing her into the story at the end, mainly because of the recent Persona games that have been released since the story was published - this was so The-Final-Fidelity can make plans for a possible future Persona fanfiction, although he has already made plans for a spin-off to Persona: World And Judgement. *The story had been in-progress for two years, and is still described by the author as 'nowhere near finished'. **The author has currently written 46 chapters for Persona: World And Judgement, writing over 300,000 words and receiving over 250 reviews. The story has had over 170 Favourites and over 190 Followers. All statistics are from FanFiction.net. *Unlike the protagonist from the original Persona 4 game, and unlike Yu Narukami's personality in the manga and anime adaption, the character now has a more vulnerable side to himself, and this was solely decided upon by the author's judgement. The-Final-Fidelity preferred this personality for Yu Narukami because of his belief that protagonists are more relatable to readers if they had a more 'human' side to them, other than protagonists who are perceived as invulnerable and heroic. **It is also worth noting that Yu Narukami's relationship with Rise Kujikawa was also down to the author's decision, who also believed that those of the Lovers Arcana are the most likeliest candidates to be the protagonist's love interest. However, the author has contested this with Marie's appearance in the story - this love-triangle was mostly influenced by the author's uncertainty of Marie's relationship arc with Yu Narukami in Persona 4: Golden. *Many readers have asked the author why the Investigation Team needed Evokers since they were able to summon them without it. In reply, the author mentions that the exchanging of the Teddie Glasses and the Evokers would've made it so that the two groups wouldn't seem separate from each other and that they would have the image as one unified group. When any of the Investigation Team members use it, especially for Yu Narukami, their feeling of using the Evoker is described as an easier summoning medium compared to their usual way by breaking a tarot card in their hands.